Professor Philippe Aghion is the 2016 recipient of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, consisting of 100,000 Euros and a statuette designed by the internationally renowned Swedish sculptor Carl Milles. He is one of the most influential researchers worldwide in economics in the last couple of decades. His research has advanced our understanding of the relationship between firm-level innovation, entry and exit on the one hand, and productivity and growth on the other. Aghion has thus accomplished to bridge theoretical macroeconomic growth models with a more complete and consistent microeconomic setting. He is one of the founding fathers of the pioneering and original contribution referred to as Schumpeterian growth theory. Philippe Aghion has not only contributed with more sophisticated theoretical models, but also provided empirical evidence regarding the importance of entrepreneurial endeavours for societal prosperity, thereby initiating a more nuanced policy discussion concerning the interdependencies between entrepreneurship, competition, wealth and growth.
We examine the role of regional import flows for renewal of regional industries. The hypothesis is that imports stimulate renewal of local industries by being vehicles for technology diffusion and means by which local firms can exploit advantages of global specialisation. We find robust and positive relationships between high-quality imports and renewal of regional exports, where the latter are measured by the introduction of novel export products of local firms. Connectedness to international markets via import networks appears to be a stimulus for the renewal of regional exports.
Many developed countries will face a disproportionately large share of older individuals in the future. This change may lead to a labour force characterized by older employees and older operational managers. This paper contributes to the existing literature on the effect of aging on firm performance by performing an explorative analysis of how the age of the operational manager and the age composition of employees relate to the survival of Swedish firms during 2004–2013. We observe that the relationship between the age of the operational manager and firm exit changes functional shape when separated into different firm-size categories. Additionally, the age of the operational manager tends to be more important for new firms compared to incumbents. The share of older employees is positively associated with firm survival.
Using data for over four decades, we examine the ageing of Swedish municipalities and if there has been convergence or divergence across time and space, where we differentiate across the urban–rural hierarchy. As migration is claimed to be a moderating factor in the ageing of places, we assess how the share of immigrants relates to ageing patterns. Our findings show that the share of older individuals increases in more peripheral localities and that there has been convergence across municipalities. However, the share of foreign population is negatively related to the ageing profile of a place.
It is well established at whatever spatial level studied that economic actors exhibit a strong tendency to cluster. Despite this fact many explanations to entrepreneurship only considers the personal characteristics of entrepreneurs. This is certainly not a satisfactory state-of-the-art. It is obvious that the influence of spatial factors must be considered carefully. In this paper we illustrate empirically that variations in the rate of entrepreneurship are explained not only in terms of characteristics of entrepreneurs, such as education, sector of employment, occupation, experience and income but also by the characteristics of i) the localities where they worked before they became entrepreneurs, ii) the localities where they currently started their firm and iii) the regions where these localities are situated. The characteristics of localities include size, population density, firm density and type of locality (metropolitan, urban, semi-rural or rural). The estimations use a multi-level approach to decipher the how much of the variance that can be explained by the different levels (individual, locality and region). The data used in this study is micro-level data for Sweden provided by Statistics Sweden.
We analyse the determinants of self-employment and focus on the contextual environment. By distinguishing between commuters and non-commuters we are able to analyse the influence from the work and home environment, respectively. Our results indicate a significant difference between non-commuters and commuters in terms of the role of networks for becoming self-employed. Our results indicate that it is the business networks where people work, rather than where they live that exerts a positive influence on the probability of becoming self-employed. These effects are further robust over educational and occupational categories.
Studies confirm an inverted U-shaped relationship between age and entrepreneurship. This paper deepens the understanding of this relationship by analysing how the relationship varies across time and across different types of regions, aspects often overlooked in the current literature. An individual perspective is taken, and the probability of starting a firm is expected to increase as individuals' age but at a decreasing rate. The results show significant differences in the relationship between the age of individuals and the rate of entrepreneurship across time and space. The age-entrepreneurship profile has shifted to the left over time such that individuals are younger when they start firms.
In the entrepreneurship literature, it is generally assumed that an individual establishes a new firm in a location in which they have strong ties, normally in the municipality of residence or employment. We scrutinise this general assumption and show that firm location depends on individual characteristics, such as the commuting experience. Our results show that commuting influences the firm location choice. The probability of establishing a firm in the work municipality increases if the entrepreneur is a commuter, holding constant the type of region and unobservable and observable individual features.
Most rural areas face a range of challenges stemming from the loss of their traditional comparative advantages due to mechanisation, automation, and structural change. In comparison to urban regions, these areas face systemic structural problems, such as lower levels of formal education, ageing populations, and a low and shrinking market potential. Rural areas therefore tend to offer a less fertile environment for entrepreneurship than urban areas provide. In this chapter, we will explore various aspects of rural entrepreneurship by analysing how the volume of entrepreneurship varies in rural areas in Sweden depending upon the size of the local market potential and the development level of the local economic milieu. We will further share insights into rural entrepreneurship by analysing the relative shares of distinct types of entrepreneurship by separating unincorporated and incorporated firms and distinguishing new firms with multiple employees from one-employee firms.
Several studies confirm a positive inverted U-shaped relationship between age and entrepreneurship. This paper analyses if this statement is true also for Sweden. By focusing on those above the age of 50, this paper adds knowledge about how individuals close to their retirement act in terms of self-employment and to what extent they contributeas entrepreneurs to the overall society. First, it analyses at the regional level the propensity of older people to start firms with a focus on the relationship between different age cohorts and the rate of new firm formation. At the second stage, an individual perspective is taken where the probability to become self-employed is expected to increase as individuals become older but at a decreasing rate. By decomposing the population in different age cohorts, it is possible to find differences in the probability of becoming self-employed. To increase and deepen the knowledge about the relationship between age and entrepreneurship this paper further adds to existing literature by separating regions into different categories along the urban-rural hierarchy. The results in this paper confirm that the rate of entrepreneurship first increases and then decreases with age. Individuals above both 55 and 64 have a positive influence on the rate of entrepreneurship at both the regional as well as the individual level. The impact is stronger in locations that are more rural.
Many developed countries are facing a demographic change with an increasing share of older individuals, yet little is known about how older workers will impact regional and national economies in terms of labor market dynamics. This Handbook deals with the important and emerging field of entrepreneurship among this group and focuses on the behavioral perspectives of this phenomenon; on innovation, dynamics and performance; and the ways entrepreneurship among the elderly looks within different countries.
[From publisher's description]
It is well-known that development is uneven across regions. The current academic and political consensus calls for policy interventions targeted towards a more balanced, inclusive and regionally cohesive growth. Yet, despite decades of sizeable policy efforts, there is no clear evidence of economic and social convergence across regions within countries. Entrepreneurship and innovation are proven to be strong drivers of regional economic development, and therefore they offer a source of potential solutions to the challenges imposed by an adverse international context. However, both entrepreneurial and innovative activity are themselves highly unevenly distributed in space, which might in itself be a main cause of the persistent regional inequalities in both developed and developing countries. A deeper understanding of the drivers and the implications of sub-national disparities in entrepreneurship and innovation is therefore a priority for implementing policies aimed at unlocking the potential of all regions in order to maximize their contribution to national growth and prosperity. In this introductory chapter, we create a background and a foundation for the rest of the chapters in this edited volume.
Illuminating and timely, this book explores several theoretical and empirical issues related to the potential for increasing capacities for innovation, knowledge and entrepreneurship. It highlights the current academic and political consensus that calls for policy interventions targeted towards more balanced, inclusive and regionally cohesive growth.
In smaller countries, the non-metropolitan regions are to a substantial degree linked togetherwith the metropolitan regions through various networks. The national infrastructure andtransport networks are often organised with the metropolitan region as the central hub. Thiscreates a number of dependencies between the metropolitan region and the non-metropolitanregions in a small country. In this paper we focus on the role that metropolitan regions playfor the renewal of the export base in the non-metropolitan regions in a small country. Theanalytical part can be divided into three main parts: i) the role of the Stockholm metropolitanregion for the renewal of the export base in the rest of Sweden between 1997 and 2003; ii)which non-metropolitan regions gain renewal of their export base; and iii) what factors canexplain the spatial distribution of these gains. The results show that distance has little to dowith the potential success of an export products diffused from Stockholm. Instead, regionalcharacteristics such as a large manufacturing sector, educational level, size of public and/oragricultural sector, and access to producer services have a larger influential potential.
The special issue provides a stimulating set of results and theories on regional entrepreneurship and its fundamental role for growth and development. Although the spatial component is analyzed from different perspectives, all the papers highlight the importance of the regional differences in ensuring the appropriate design and implementation of policies aimed at unlocking the potential of regions through entrepreneurship and innovation.